Nicole Kidman, Meghann Fahy and ‘The Perfect Couple’ Stars Started a WhatsApp Group to Protest Opening Credits Dance Sequence: ‘The Entire Cast Had a Mutiny’

The cast of “The Perfect Couple” almost staged a mutiny after director Susanne Bier insisted on a flashmob-style dance sequence for the opening credits.

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The Netflix murder mystery, based on Elin Hildebrand’s book of the same name, follows a police investigation into the wealthy Winbury family after a body is discovered during a family wedding, uncovering plenty of long-buried secrets in the process.

Despite the dark undertones, the show opens with a somewhat incongruous routine in which the entire cast – including Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning and Liev Schriber – dance in unison on the beach to Meghan Trainor track “Criminals” while clad in suits and evening dresses.

“I think I felt that I want to do something where we are telling the audience ‘This is going to be fun,’” Bier told Variety before the premiere in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. “I feel this time [period] is a little bit gloomy and I felt I wanted to do something which had a lot of life and a lot of fun. And I wanted to see all the characters having fun.”

The cast, however, weren’t convinced, even starting a WhatsApp group text to try and get the dance shut down. Meghann Fahy, who plays social media influencer Merritt in the show, told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere Wednesday night: “Everyone was on that group saying they didn’t want to do this because we just didn’t understand.”

“I actually have a really, really huge issue with learning choreography so I was very nervous about it,” she added.

Ishaan Khattar, who plays best man Scooter, said that although he’s a trained dancer, “I don’t think any of us could make sense of doing this choreography in these characters. We’re like, ‘Wait where does this fit into the scheme of things? This was not part of the assignment!’”

It wasn’t only the cast who were skeptical; the producers were also concerned about having enough time to shoot the sequence, which was choreographed by Charm La’Donna. Bier came up with the idea after everyone returned to set following an eight month hiatus due to last year’s WGA and SAG strikes.

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“Normally you would spend a full day, probably two days shooting something like that and we did it in one and a half hours,” Bier revealed. “I had serious conversations [because everyone] went, ‘Are you sure you want to spend time doing this when we are so short of time?’ and I was like — I could hear myself being like a two-year-old – ‘I want it! I want it!’”

Nicole Kidman, who plays Winbury Matriarch Greer, was among those who took some convincing. “Because I didn’t feel like Greer would dance! I felt like Greer would watch,” she said, admitting she had joined the WhatsApp group. “But I danced as Greer. I think it’s great and I’m so glad they got us all to do it. ‘Cause there’s some joy in it.”

Only Schrieber, who plays Greer’s husband Tag Winbury, was game. “I wasn’t in that [WhatsApp] chain,” he said. “The entire cast had a mutiny about this idea except for me, I was already in my trailer practicing the dance moves. I just like dancing and I was kinda disappointed when it came out that I’m not in it more because I thought I did it really well.”

La’Donna, meanwhile, had nothing but praise for the actors. “They’re fast learners,” she said. “We all had fun, it was a fun day on the beach.”

Bier told the La’Donna (who also happens to be Meghan Trainor’s choreographer) she wanted “classical” dance steps influenced by movies like “Saturday Night Fever.” The choreographer also infused some of the show’s themes into the routine, including a move where the cast are pointing with alternate hands, which symbolizes the murder mystery at the heart of the series. “When you see them pointing around you don’t know who is who and what’s what,” La’Donna explained.

Despite the initial resistance, by the time the cameras were rolling everyone was ready to strut their stuff. “The God’s honest truth is that at the end of the day we were very, very joyful about it, we all sort of ended up giving in to it,” Fahy admitted. “It was so fun and I actually weirdly think it’s amazing.”

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